Mitch Trubisky deserves to start again
Monday Night Football was an embarrassment for the Chicago Bears. After starting the season 5-1, the Bears fell into a four-game losing streak solely because of the poor play of their offense. This was topped off by the Bears failing to score any points from their offense against a defense that is one of the worst in the NFL.
The embarrassment went all over from Anthony Miller‘s drops, to the classic offensive line, and to Nick Foles per usual missing the throws he was brought in to make.
After Matt Nagy threw Mitchell Trubisky under the bus, he finally got “his guy” in Foles. How has that translated? The Bears are averaging just under 19 points per game. Foles himself has thrown seven touchdowns to seven interceptions in the games he started in. He is averaging one touchdown and one interception per game.
To top this all off, Foles got injured and it didn’t look good on Monday night. As bad as Foles has been, it is always unfortunate to see a player suffer an injury especially given how much pain it seemed Foles was in. He was carted off in the dying seconds of the fourth quarter as Tyler Bray came in relief.
So, now what? Nagy seems optimistic about Foles saying that he is day-to-day and doesn’t expect him to land on the Injured Reserve. Nagy also stated that “everything’s on the table” when asked about moving back to Trubisky at quarterback. So we will just see what that means. But, why should they switch back to the former second overall pick?
The Offense is better with Trubisky at the helm
Statistically, the offense has been much better in every way with Trubisky starting at quarterback. In the first two games of the season, the Bears scored 27 points against an average defense and 17 points against an above-average defense.
In Trubisky’s defense, he should have had more points if it wasn’t for Anthony Miller’s touchdown drop, third-down drop, and Allen Robinson losing a 50/50 ball to James Bradberry. In comparison, Foles hasn’t scored more than 23 points against some far worse defenses.
On top of the scoring being much worse, the Bears additionally have not been able to run the ball in the system designed around Foles. Here are the Bears’ rushing yards totals over the games Nick Foles started: 28, 35, 63, 49, 96, 56, and 41. During that stretch, the Bears did play some tough run defenses, but they also played some of the worst in Carolina, Minnesota, and Tennessee.
In the three games Trubisky started, the total rushing yards was never under 100 yards with games of 149, 135, and 130. The heavy I-Form scheme with play-action behind it was hard to stop with the Bears.
The offense was significantly better with Trubisky at the helm.
Trubisky’s skill set is better built for this offense
With the current offensive line, Trubisky is much better built for this offense. The offensive line has been horrid. They have not helped Foles one bit, but Trubisky would be better than Foles behind them and there is one main reason for that.
Trubisky has the ability to escape the pocket. His athletic ability and his ability to get outside the pocket and make plays is what separates him from Foles. We see constantly on gameday Foles having the ability to leave the pocket and run, but he just cannot do that. Foles just seems to be a statue in the pocket that can’t run more than five yards.
On top of that, Trubisky’s skill set calls for a better offensive system that the Bears can run involving getting Trubisky on the run. We see quite a few plays in which Foles does a sprint out (in his case a brisk “walkout”) and they never seem to work with Foles. Why? Because Foles’ athletic ability doesn’t work like that. Foles is built to operate behind a powerful offensive line like he once had in Philadelphia.
The heavy play-action scheme and power offense would work perfectly with this offensive line. With the maulers in the run-blocking department like Germain Ifedi and Arlington Hambright, the Bears could move back to this heavy under center scheme they originally ran in their first two games.
Trubisky provides the Chicago Bears’ offense a spark
All in all, Trubisky makes this Bears’ offense more fun and provides a spark with his athletic ability. Trubisky’s main knock was his decision-making and accuracy, but Foles has struggled with the exact same thing. The only difference is Foles is one-dimensional in the pocket. Why would you rather have an inaccurate, inconsistent statue over a quarterback of the same attributes but can also move?
Trubisky makes this offense more fun. His ability to escape the pocket and use his legs is what makes this offense fun. It would take some pressure off of the Bears’ passing game when he uses his legs and runs out of the pocket.
As a sub-point to this last point, the Bears season seems to be over. Why not run it out with Trubisky while he is still here? They should see what they have in him one last time with his scheme. If anything, they can tank it away and hope to get a new quarterback in the draft with their new GM and Head Coach.
On the bright side, Trubisky’s record in Chicago is far better than Foles and we should ride that and hope he can pull us into the playoffs. That is the best-case scenario.